Bye Squall, Bye Quistis
by rubbishgirl
Summary: This is set a year after the SeeD graduation ball. It centers around Squall and Quistis. The third cahpter is now up: In which Quistis receives a present.
1. In which people dance

In which people dance Mumford 7 6 2001-10-15T18:11:00Z 2001-10-15T18:37:00Z 4 1400 6304 n/a 161 56 9806 9.2720 88 

He didn't really know why he'd come. But the moment he saw her he did.

Selphie had broken up with Irvine and brought her along for moral support. Squall looked about for her and saw her and Irvine snogging in a corner of the dance floor. His lip curled in contempt. He'd never do that in public. His eyes drifted back to her, maybe that was why.

He looked at Rinoa, who was fawning over Nida and whispering something in his ear. Whatever it was it made him blush. Squall remembered when that used to be him. They'd never really been any feeling there though. Rinoa wanted Seifer and he'd wanted, well he knew who he wanted.

His eyes slid past Rinoa and focused on the girl sitting behind her. She was staring resolutely at the glass in front of her. Her hair was for once loose and it hid her face in two shimmering curtains. He stood beside her knowing that at any moment she would look up and understand, without words, what he felt.

She didn't look up. He cleared his throat. Her eyes flicked briefly to his face then back to her glass.

"Hi, Squall."

He stood there awkwardly. In his plan she was supposed to understand without words what he felt, and then get up and let him kiss her. It wasn't going to happen.

"Would you like to dance?"

"No, I'm okay," she replied, and flashed a smile at him.

"Please," he said quietly.

"Oh," she said, embarrassed at having misread the situation. "Sure"

She got up and Squall noticed she was shorter than usual.

She noted his bemused look. "I'm going barefoot. The shoes Selphie chose are under the table."

Squall looked at the six inch strappy stilettos under the table and understood. She was wearing a loose fitting long dress, of a shade that matching her eyes. The neckline was ever so slightly "V" but Squall was far to honourable to consider even thinking about looking down it, well maybe not, but he wouldn't actually do it.

He led her onto the dance floor her cool hand palm in palm with his, which were sweating just being near her.

She drifted around him dreamily, quite unlike Rinoa or Selphie who bounded around their partners showing boundless energy. As her watched her he wondered if she were actually here with him or if her mind were somewhere else entirely.

He remembered just after the battle with Ultimecia, he had been called up into Cid's office. He was waiting outside when he heard his name mentioned, he walked up and looked through a crack in the slightly open door. Quistis was sitting stiffly with her hands on her knees while Cid paced in front of her.

"I can see why you were interested in him Cid. He is a good fighter, but he is also anti-social and uncommunicative. He is unable to ask for help and shows poor leadership skills."

"But he defeated Ultimecia."

"Yes, he formed a relationship with Miss Caraway and she brought him out the best in him. However I doubt that now the relationship is over he'll stay like that."

At that point Squall had punched the wall. Ever since they'd broken up he'd been hearing people say that Rinoa was the best thing that could have happened to him and that she'd brought out him out of his shell. Didn't they realise that real reason was that finally Quistis Trepe was treating him as an equal, rather than a student.

"Well, as that isn't going to happen, how would you like the job?" he looked at her hopefully.

"No thanks," she said, looking down and blushing slightly. "As a matter of fact, I came here because of something I wanted to ask you-"

As her looked at her now he wondered what would happen if he told her the truth. That whenever he was around her he developed an awful stutter and couldn't think of anything to say. He'd envied Seifer for that. He was always saying clever things, and in every lesson he and the instructor would be involved in a friendly slanging match, exchanging the witticisms that Squall could never remember when he tried to talk to her. Seifer was right when he'd called him puberty boy.

He wondered if she knew, of course she did. That time on the beach. He'd thought she was telling him she felt the same way. But really she was trying to let him down gently, telling him she felt like his sister, explaining to him what a kid he was to her.

They, him, Selphie, Zell, Irvine, hadn't seen that much of her after the defeat of Ultimecia. He didn't include Rinoa; she was just hanging on here a bit for the glory then going back to live with her father. At the break-up a lot of stuff came out, like that she'd barely been in the Timber Owls two weeks before the mission against the Galbadian president, she'd just had an argument with her dad about getting her belly button pierced.

Quistis had gone back to the friends she'd had before, Xu and the other instructors and older SeeDs. She didn't even go with them when went to almost every city to collect congratulations, except Galbadia, and they all knew why that was.

"-I came here because of something I wanted to ask you," she paused. "I'd like to be transferred to Galbadia."

"Oh," said Cid, unpleasantly surprised.

"Not that anything's wrong here," she assured him hastily. "It's just that I'd like to be with my boyfriend." Her cheeks pinkened in embarrassment as she saw Cid's expression.

"You've kept this quiet," he said smiling, and taking on the father stance that came as second nature to him with most of his younger SeeDs he watched her take on the stance of his daughter.

"I didn't want *certain people*," Cid nodded understanding, "to get hold of it. I only told people I knew I could trust."

That had probably stung more than her relationship with the mystery Galbadian. They'd been through so much together, she'd got him through his SeeD training, they'd discovered they'd grown up together, they'd defeated three sorceresses and she still didn't trust him with one little piece of information.

"What's he like?"

"He's called Coryn. He's a few years older than me, his twenty-first is coming up. He's one of the best instructors there, and," she blushed even more if possible, "I think he's going to ask me to marry him."

"Well, as I'm not going to see you for a while, congratulations."

"You mean I can go?" She had gotten up so Squall could no longer see her face, but he could tell by her voice just how happy she was.

"Yes," then a bit more sternly, "after you've seen this batch of SeeDs through to their exam. When's his twenty-first?"

"In about two and a half months"

Cid relaxed. "Tons of time then."

"Yeah," she said softly, thinking. "Bye and thanks again."

She walked out of the door.

"Hi Squall," she said surprised.

He could tell she was wondering how long he'd been there.

"Congratulations, I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks Squall," she said letting out a relived breath. She still looked a bit nervous though, and Squall wondered if perhaps she didn't want him to know because, maybe, she liked him too.

Looking at her now he realised that this was his only chance before she left to tell her how he felt.

When the dance ended he didn't let go of her hands but instead drew her to him. Then, over her shoulder, he saw someone discreetly enter the hall. He knew instinctively who it was. Coryn.

The man was tall, taller then Seifer, and a lot taller than Squall. His blond hair was longer than Seifer's and more sensibly cut then Squall's. Squall disliked him on sight. He put a finger to his lips, asking Squall not to tell Quistis, then began to creep up on her.

Squall knew he had to act fast.

"Quistis, t-there's s-s-something-"

"Squall are you stammering?" she asked, her eyes laughing.

"- I n-need t-t-to t-t-t-tell you," he took a deep breath and calmed himself, "I-"

"Oh god," she said, delighted, bringing her hands up to her face.

Squall looked up at her and smiled, a rare occurrence. But she missed it. She was looking past him into one of the mirrors hung around the hall.

She spun round catching Coryn's almost successful stealth attack. She jumped up at him flinging her arms around his neck.

"Bye Squall"

They left the hall, his arm around her waist and her head resting on his chest.

"Bye Quistis"


	2. In which a proposition is made

In which proposals are made Mumford 8 6 2001-10-15T18:13:00Z 2001-10-29T20:43:00Z 2 517 2948 n/a 24 5 3620 9.2720 88 

They walked in silence.

She liked the way they could do this without it becoming oppressive and uncomfortable.

Despite herself she found her thoughts landing on Squall. She sighed heavily.

"What?"

She looked up into Coryn's eyes. They were a mixture. Sometimes they were a mellow brown with hazel flacks, but then she'd look again and they'd be a light blue-green. But never was there the cold ice that always shot straight through her whenever she looked at Squall. She sighed again.

"What?" he said, anxious. She smiled; he was quite sweet really.

"Just worrying about Squall."

A slight frown wrinkled his beautiful forehead. "The guy at the dance."

"Yeah" she replied thoughtfully.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Just what his life's going to be like. I mean he's very pretty to look at-"

"I think somebody has a crush on somebody!"

"Shut up," she said pushing him playfully. "And he can fight but, y'know, what's he gonna do, just spend his whole life fighting. There's no point."

"Was he one of your students?"

"Yeah," she paused, organising her thoughts, "I resigned over him. I tried so hard," she leaned closer into him. "I had a big plan all worked out. I would confide my problems in him and in return-"

"He'd confide his in you." He held her a bit tighter. "But isn't that against the instructor-student code of conduct?"

"Well yeah, so to get around it I fibbed. I said I'd lost my job as an instructor," she sniffed in self-pity.

"Well that was stupid," he said unsympathetically.

"Hey," she replied, mock offended, "I was young and stupid then."

"And you're not now"

She elbowed him gently in an affectionate manner. "So I waited for him to comfort me and tell me something about himself and thus the reciprocal self-disclosure would begin."

"Ah, psychology speak. So what happened?"

"If I recall correctly he said 'go talk to a wall'"

"I could have told you that."

She looked up at him. "Hmm?"

"Well he probably just fancied the pants off you so - OWW!"

Quistis had placed a girly punch in his chest.

"I'm just speaking from personal experience here." She glared at him and he continued smoothly. "Anyway, he's not your problem anymore, you have to learn to let things go."

"Yeah I s'pose." She sighed again and felt his body tense against hers. "What?"

"We're here."

"Oh" She looked around and saw that they were, indeed, on the balcony. "We must have gone a very roundabout way."

"Yeah well," he said, separating himself from her and rubbing his hands together. "I wanted to be alone with you."

"Ahh, you're sweet," she said, trying to snuggle into him.

He moved away.

"What?" she asked, her voice on edge.

He sat on the bench and motioned for her to sit beside him and she did, turning her head to look out at the view.

"Quistis, I'm going to be twenty-one in a few days and I was wondering if, if um," he turned towards her and took her hands in his. "If maybe we could, um, get married, in a bit, when you're ready." He peered round trying to see past the hair that was obscuring her reaction.

She whipped round, flinging her arms around his neck and he felt her salty tears on his cheeks.

"So, um, is this yes?" he asked nervously.

She turned her face giggling to his then hugged him again tightly.

"I love you," came her muffled voice.

"Good," he said, straining his neck to look down at her head buried in his chest. "So," he said taking her arms from around him and kissing her hands. "Are we gonna get married?"

" . . . yeah" she replied slowly savouring the look of joy on his face. "Lets"


	3. In which a gift is given

In which presents are given Mumford Mumford 8 129 2001-10-14T16:24:00Z 2001-10-26T21:42:00Z 2 621 3545 n/a 29 7 4353 9.2720 88 1 

Quistis brushed her hair slowly in the mirror wondering when Coryn would get here. It had been like this ever since she'd left Balamb garden just waiting around for Coryn to get here. Galbadia was just so different from Balamb, for a start there were barely any girls, and certainly none at SeeD rank. All through the years girls would be actively discouraged from becoming a SeeD, being pushed instead towards the academic studies where they would be given a provisional qualification after a couple of years and then drafted to teach the junior classmen. Which was another difference. In Galbadia it took a lot longer for people to reach SeeD trainee level most not having their first attempt at the exam until they were eighteen. While she could see the reasoning behind this it still made it very hard for an eighteen year old girl to be taken seriously as either as a SeeD or a SeeD instructor.

At the moment she was subbing for the intermediate level SeeDs. It was very hard to get her talent recognised not only because of what she was but also because of what she'd done as, for obvious reasons, Galbadia wasn't very receptive to her success in the Sorceress War. It was odd. Back at Balamb she'd always been respected, even before she'd done anything and now she was subbing for classes of teenage boys who really weren't very mature. It made her miss the reverential worship of the Trepies.

It didn't help that Coryn was busy all the time. Now, apparently, was a very important time in his career, which meant that he had to spend all his time talking to Commander this or General that. It was what they were meant to be doing this evening. She'd spent ages getting ready, he'd told her that it was very important to make the right impression. He'd promised her that he'd come round early and get her so they could go together, but it was now a quarter of an hour after the party was meant to start, and only getting later. Then there was a knock on the door. "Coryn" she breathed.

She opened the door.

"H-hi Quistis"

It was Squall.

"Hey Squall"

She retreated back into the room leaving the door open behind her. Squall shut it behind him. She sat dejectedly on the bed.

"You look nice"

"Thanks" and smiled sadly.

He wasn't lying, he thought she looked beautiful. He remembered what he'd come for and started fumbling around in his pocket.

"I, um, got you a present"

"Oh, why?" she asked, her interest roused.

"For the engagement, y'know, as I missed the sending off."

"Why _did_ you miss the sending off?"

"I guess I just overslept" Squall replied, not wanted her to know how he'd stayed away languishing in his self-pity alone in his dorm. "Here it is." And he produced a small square jewellery case. He opened it gingerly.

"I got you these earrings, because I figured as you always wear you hair up you . . . " his voice trailed off as he looked at her properly for the first time. The first thing he noticed was that her hair, instead of being held up by an invisible arrangement of hairpins, was floating around her shoulders in beautiful golden waves.

"I'm sorry" he said embarrassed.

"No, it's fine." She replied. "They're lovely."

"I got them from Deling City, you see that main stone there is actually an energy crystal, which is why it has all the different colours – you don't have to wear them," he ended sheepishly.

"Don't be silly they're beautiful. I'll know they're there which is the most important thing."

She put them on delicately in the mirror enjoying the tinkling sound as the different crystal droplets brushed each other.

Squall looked at her again and noticed her made-up face and stylish black dress. He didn't like her with make-up he decided, it somehow took the edge off her natural waiflike beauty and turned her into a normal pretty girl. "You look nice" he repeated guardedly.

She laughed a laugh echoing the sound of her earrings. "Yeah, I'm going to a party. Coryn was meant to be taking me but," she glanced at the clock, "doesn't look like he's coming."

Squall looked at her controlled calm face, then watched as the corners of her mouth jerked involuntarily down. "Is your party the one in the main assembly room?"

She looked up. "Yeah"

"That's the one I'm here for. Wanna come with me?"

She smiled. "Yeah" she replied warmly.


End file.
